


King's Cross Consternation

by 5972OltonHall



Category: Doctor Who, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hogwarts Express, King’s Cross Station, M/M, Rebellion against parental control., TARDIS - Freeform, Wizarding railways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-09-24 09:36:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17098124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5972OltonHall/pseuds/5972OltonHall
Summary: It is the early morning of 1st September 2018 and a host of wizards with connections to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are preparing to wend their way to, and through, London on their trek to King’s Cross. Meanwhile, across the City the Hogwarts Express is being prepared for the run to Hogsmeade; however, as the morning unfolds everything does not go according to plan.Update: The work was heavily revised on 8 February 2019 with some text reordering and the addition of new scenes inserted as Chapter 3 (Including passing reference to Dr. Who). Thank you all for the feedback received.COPYRIGHT STATEMENT - All references to JKR's Harry Potter characters, scenarios and locations are recognised as the intellectual property of J K Rowling and her subsequent publishers. No commercial benefits are being accrued or claimed. However, all originally created material within this work remains mine.





	1. Calm before the storm

**Author's Note:**

> Story includes divergences and conflicts with elements of canon.
> 
> 1\. King’s Cross, wizards station?: canon unclear if King’s Cross (Hogwarts Rail) only opens at term change dates or can be assumed to be always open to serve wizarding London. This assumes it is, with necessary supporting infrastructure, and assumes some of the enchantments of the Knight Bus are used on trains. 
> 
> 2\. Hogwarts Rail?: Other Hogwarts Railway services and other routes? I assume yes, as, squibs can’t apparate but would need travel in the wizarding world. Canon states the Hogwarts Express uses 9 3/4 not platform 9 1/2. The half or point five more logical if there was only one, at least 3 platforms can therefore be assumed. Pottermore’s King’s Cross guide page refers to magical platforms (plural not singular). Pottermore state some children get “portkey-sick”, the books imply that floo travel is not universal, floos are added/detached from the network. Other travel (including broom-flight) impractical for groups, e.g. travelling into busy muggle areas or with accompanying luggage. The UK’s rail network is franchised, Hogwarts Rail are, another “open-access” franchisee.
> 
> 3\. Train links under/around KX: KX had two, now abandoned, tunnel connections to the TFL (Underground) and Thameslink networks. These took full size trains and the old Post Office railway (mostly closed but in situ) linked various London locations and passed under the supposed site of Diagon Alley. A proposal to also add KX was, never built. In the wizarding world it was, a tunneled loop able to take standard size steam trains still serves Diagon Alley station. Cross-Rail is, perhaps, the Min Of Magic’s layer of camouflage added using, Repello Muggletum, Protego Totalum etc.. The Hogwarts Express exhibit at Leavesden (London) has a tunnel at the inward end of the station; this is in the scenarios outlined.
> 
> 4\. Exits from King’s Cross? Pottermore’s KX guide suggests plain-clothes Ministry officials guard the concourse, and in Philosopher’s Stone, a wizened old guard governs the exit flow to the main muggle concourse. Some muggle stations have extra gates used only at specific times; thus a control gate, only opened when the school special arrives, is therefore not necessarily indicative of their being only one exit from KX.
> 
> 5\. Rail-replacement busses are the bane of muggle life. I presumed here that multiple Knight Busses can be summoned if/when, sufficient wizards to fill more than one bus are in need, gathered in one place for a single journey.
> 
> 6\. Rolling stock, divergence from Pottermore description: Pottermore's early railway origins of the Hogwarts Express are total fiction; however, they are neither far-fetched, nor beyond plausibility for a parallel reality. However, the age of the locomotive (as if that original was still in use) is impossible and ignored here as is the drawn 0-6-0 loco. The filmed locos, and cover drawing on early editions of the Philosphers Stone and in early publicity images, are plausible.
> 
> 7\. Southall depot?: In reality at Southall in West London there is a muggle steam locomotive and rolling stock maintenance depot (including carriage sidings), hence references to Southall made here. Links to/from the magical network are fictional.
> 
> 8\. Goods/freight? Canon states there are five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, food is specified the others not. A heavily debated fan-fora topic with many suggestions for the other four. My view is that for several practical, and logical, reasons two of the other five are likely to be (a) transfiguration can only be done for the individual wizard and (b) to/from the original state. Thus money (coins, gold etc.) can't be passed on to be used, or owned, by a 2nd party in their transfigured state as once they leave the remit of the creating wizard they revert. Transfiguring of goods for sale therefore also fails. JKR did not describe any wizard types of industry in canon but shops like those in the various alleys in London have to be supplied from elsewhere. (whether from wizard or muggle sources doesn’t matter) Shrinking charms would not be used in muggle areas therefore there would be a need for freight movements by water, road and rail.
> 
> 9\. Hogwarts & Hogsmead - The Scottish highlands location is at best quasi/semi-canonical. Following canon the Castle, & other wizarding locations, are supposedly unplottable! This story Deviates from accepted lore with Hogsmeade in the Border Region. The film locations conflict ; I discount them as canon, even wizards would not travel from KX, to Goathland (Hogsmeade) via Glenfinnan Viaduct. (filmed locations).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the summer of 2018 slowly evolves into Autumn, and the 1st September once again comes around, thoughts in the wizarding world turn to the start of the Hogwarts school year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter only contains previously published text. However in the light of reader feedback the first two chapters of the work as first published have been re-ordered to aid clarity. That text now forms Ch 1, 2 & 4\. Newly written scenes have been added as the inserted Chapter 3.

The summer had been generally peaceful in the wizarding world. The post-war economy was returning to prosperity, aided by the fact that, despite the physical damage caused by the escaping dragon, Gringotts had avoided being embroiled in the muggle fiscal turbulence. The bank’s refurbished premises once again dominated Diagon Alley, if anything, even more splendiferously overpowering than before. True some of the old Death Eater families were still, at best, going through the long and convoluted process of getting a majority of the Wizengamot to agree release of funds and, at worst making regular familial visits to Askaban, but the wartime scars had, in the main, healed. Even the elections to the various positions in the Ministry of Magic had gone smoothly, unlike in the muggle world with its endlessly broiling political anxt and continuing violent conflicts. As Hermione Weasley-Granger (the newly re-elected Minister of Magic) approached the station with her family ready for her eldest child Rose, now a Hogwarts second year, to board the _Hogwarts Express_ superficially all appeared well with the world.

The split between the magical and the muggle, or if you prefer the mundane or No-Mag worlds, is generally well disguised. _The Statute of Secrecy_ , backed up and enforced by the Ministry of Magic’s Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, goes a long way towards ensuring the two separated entities interact seamlessly. The barrier between worlds is firmly defined, but leaky; many muggle partners of wizards work in the wizarding sphere, with a few wizards and many more squibs regularly entering, and working in, the muggle environment.

The role of squibs as liaison officers for the many muggle organisations broadly paralleling wizard equivalents is an essential part in ensuring the continued success of _The Statute of Secrecy._ When all is going as intended the process works. However, in the muggle world there is no reparo spell; when something goes wrong there is no magical fix. The imperious curse is, rightly, not just restricted but universally accepted as one of the three unforgiveable curses: even if enough individual muggles can be persuaded by non-magical means to decide something is going to happen, there are limited alternatives to change things in the wizards favour.

As we are about to discover the result, is of course, unexpected SNAFUs


	2. Problems begin for the Hogwarts Express

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the early hours of the morning, as the Hogwarts Express is being readied for the trip to Scotland, unexpected problems arise at the depot. Things will only get worse as the day progresses!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter only contains previously published text. However in the light of reader feedback the first two chapters of the work as first published have been re-ordered to aid clarity. That text now forms Ch 1, 2 & 4\. Newly written scenes have been added as the inserted Chapter 3.

**05:57 1st September 2018; a set of railway points, Southall rail-depot, West London**

A departing muggle organised rail tour for Salisbury, hauled by a historic steam locomotive, is leaving the yard. As yet unnoticed by any of the relevant staff a small, but vital, safety component breaks under the train rendering the points (turnouts) inoperable. This early in the day the problems it would later create for Hogwarts Rail, who also use Southall Depot as their base for locomotives and carriages, had not, as yet, been appreciated.

**6:15 Greater London**

As the first rays of a newly dawning sun lit the day a host of wizards with connections to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are preparing to wend their way to, and through, London. For some thus far they are taking an all muggle journey, for others it is a mix of the magical and mundane, but for all, their destination is the same. Their destination is the muggle departures concourse at King’s Cross railway station.

Since the earliest days of the school train provision, irrespective of where a first year pupil lives, in addition to being a boarder taking the train ride to the school from King’s Cross station has been compulsory for first years. For second years and upwards things are now more relaxed, even if boarding at the school they just have to meet the school train at Hogsmeade Station, and third years, if they live close enough, can even be day pupils. Despite this relaxation of the old customs dating back into times immemorial the school still retains the traditional year designations; a first year at Hogwarts is in the first year of their formal training in wizardry therefore to consider them as already being year sevens, as outside in the mundane world, is a simply preposterous concept.

One of the underlying Hogwarts mysteries, especially for first year muggle-borns, is that irrespective of the day of the week their train had left King’s Cross, by the time they enter the Castle’s Great Hall for the sorting ceremony that same evening the wizarding calendar has reset and morphed into Sunday. This year 1st September was a Saturday in the muggle world and, in most areas, also the last weekend of the state school holidays. Wizard-borns were un-phased by this change, their parents had been to Hogwarts, the annual time-shift to match the routine of the school’s own calendar was anticipated, but for the others it was yet another of their first day culture shocks. If the some of the first years had previously thought the annual wintertime/ summertime clock change was a hard enough adjustment, finding a full calendar swap was, definitely, going take some getting the head around! But this discovery has yet to arise, they’ve all got to catch the train first.


	3. Breakfast at the Leaky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the Malfoy family tensions that had already been simmering over the last few days were about to worsen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is an insert into the originally published story line. (Updated 14 March 2019) 
> 
> In the light of reader feedback the first two chapters of the work as first published have been re-ordered to aid clarity. That text now forms Ch 1, 2 & 4\. Newly written scenes have been added as this inserted new Chapter 3.
> 
> The Chapter heading error for this and Chap 4 now corrected.

**07:56 The Leaky Cauldron**

The morning atmosphere in the Leaky Cauldron was a strange mixture of sadness, excitement and trepidation as parents and pupils awoke on Hogwarts departure day. A Travelodge atmosphere it definitely wasn’t, even if that was perhaps what some of the first year parents had expected! (OK, year seven for the modern muggle readers). That the tables, by expanding and contracting as necessary, were managing to seat everyone despite the fluctuating numbers was something that was not an unusual occurrence for the regular wizarding community but just one of the many new experiences being experienced by the first year muggle-borns and their parents.

Draco and Scorpius Malfoy had already given up on waiting for Narcissa. They’d agreed to meet her for breakfast at 7:30; it was already nearly eight and, as she had not deigned to put in an appearance, father and son had started on their meals.

That she was late was not a surprise to Draco. Sadly Astoria was again ill, and couldn’t face travelling to London, and Narcissa had insisted that as she was Scorpius’ Grandmother she would just have to take Astoria’s place. Quite why the school run trip to London needed a woman’s involvement Draco had no idea, but he did recall that he’d never done the trip in his own school days with just his father present.

They had, in fact, travelled up yesterday, but for several days beforehand Narcissa had vehemently argued that a woman had to be in the party and they’d no need to travel up the day before and stop over. She was adamant that it’s just not done, Malfoys do not stay overnight in the Leaky Cauldron. Instead, she argued, they should just apparate into London as they always had done when Draco was a child, the idea of using a public train was just so humiliating. Draco pointed out in return that Scorpius was prone to getting severe motion sickness when apparating and it was just so much easier to move the luggage and familiars by train, especially when the said accompanying baggage was reduced by magical shrinking charms.

Draco, with Astoria’s help, had finally managed to win the argument and it was the wizarding train from the west-country that Draco, Scorpius and Narcissa had caught yesterday afternoon. Of course the tickets were for First Class seating, but even with the added privacy that brought, Narcissa had spent the journey in stony silence.

Even though many of the patrons had already eaten their breakfasts the hubbub in the dining room was still a deafening barrage of sound, but through it individual snippets of conversation would emerge. For Scorpius (who’d been with muggle-borns at Hogwarts all last year) overhearing the two children at the next table arguing as to whether or not Dr Who’s scripts were written by a wizard was intriguing. Draco had no idea of the identity of the Doctor, or even who, or what. he was. The topic just passed him by. However, Scorpius, unlike his father, watched the show when he could, which wasn’t often, and even knew that the latest Doctor was a woman!

One of the two, a slightly dumpy dark haired boy who Scorpius vaguely recognised as a Ravenclaw from his year, was adamant that as the _TARDIS_ clearly used extension charms, the scripts for the show had to be wizard written. Across the table from him a willowy, auburn haired, girl Scorpius didn’t recognise, but guessed might be the boy’s younger sister, was equally adamant that time travel was impossible. The ebb and flow was fascinating for Scorpius. The reason, as both he and his father very well knew from last year’s escapades, was that time-turners may have been banned but a few still existed; albeit under tight Ministry security.

This whole Dr Who as a wizard concept was an intriguing debating topic, and one into which Scorpius was about to enthusiastically join, but at that point Narcissa eventually deigned to arrive; claiming the delay was due to a mixture of tiredness and the worry of being seen in the presence of so many of the lower orders. The first thing she did was demand that Scorpius fetched her breakfast over from the self-service bar and the second was to cast a muffliato charm to quell the noise. After pulling Draco’s copy of the _Daily Prophet_ across the table she snapped it open, effectively creating a visible barrier between her and her son. She wasn’t happy, Draco was not forgiven, and she was making sure those around her noticed.

**9:45 Transport for London control room.**

Although it was not causing any particular problems of congestion supervisors were receiving reports from station staff, and in particular those working in and around the King’s Cross St Pancras underground station, of general oddness. Passenger numbers were unexpectedly up, the luggage items being carried by several passengers were noticeably peculiar, including several antique trunks, some unexpected livestock and several caged owls. They put it down to some form of social media led fancy dress flash-mob, or perhaps a private unadvertised COMIC-CON event, but began to watch the CCTV feeds more intently, just in case.

**10:05 Charing Cross Road adjacent to Leicester Square Underground Station**

A London cabbie was flagged down by a very unusually dressed group of three passengers with a request for the run to King’s Cross Station. At the time he did wonder why they had a caged owl? Like most City cabbies the world over it wasn’t his place to ask so he kept quiet. Equally, and again like cabbies the world over, he was not one to ever turn down a fare, especially for a group with luggage add-ons, and he took them as requested. It wasn’t his place to say that 20 yards away was the entrance to Leicester Square tube station and they could have done it on the Northern Line direct for a fraction of his fare.

When he was later questioned by the police, and despite incontrovertible evidence showing it was his cab that had carried the Malfoys across London, his memory of that whole morning had become a blank.


	4. Decisions are taken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Decisions are taken regarding the Hogwarts Express. As the morning progress we learn more about how the wizarding and muggle rail networks interact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter only contains previously published text. However in the light of reader feedback the first two chapters of the work as first published have been re-ordered to aid clarity. That text now forms Ch 1, 2 & 4\. Newly written scenes have been added as the inserted Chapter 3.

**10:17 - Southall and the offices of Hogwarts Rail**

Although all still appeared normal at King's Cross that was not so elsewhere; in the traffic office of Hogwarts Rail things were going badly awry. The _Hogwarts Castle_ locomotive had passed its routine fitness to run inspection and was simmering gently in the depot in Southall ready for the long run to Hogsmeade. Unfortunately, the same was not the case regarding the regular set of carriages for the _Hogwarts Express_. In the yard, during the shunting needed to get a muggle charter train on its way to Salisbury earlier that morning, a points failure had occurred stranding the carriages for the school special, together with several other rakes of coaches, in their sidings. To compound the problem further, that set of points was in the muggle visible section; the fix would be prolonged. Decisions had to be made and made quickly.

Barney Greengrass had made the final call, to cancel the 11:10 _Cornish Wizardier_ service to Falmouth, instead swapping that rolling stock over for the _Hogwarts Express_. Given the much smaller number of disappointed travellers there would be off the 11:10, compared to the hordes of highly influential wizards associated with Hogwarts and the Ministry, and all anxiously arriving at Kings Cross in expectation of the school train, Barney’s choice was a no-brainer. This triggered action in the Hogwarts Rail offices too as negotiations began to get ticket acceptance arranged out of Paddington on muggle rail services for the Cornwall bound mix of squibs and wizards. The associated task of sorting out a few rail-replacement Knight Busses to transfer the displaced passengers the short distance across London was, by far, the easier operation of the two.

A short time later at King’s Cross the first stirrings and murmurings were heard followed an announcement (which was, of course, audible only to the passengers waiting on platforms 9 1/4 to 9 3/4s), namely:

“Hogwarts Rail regret to announce the cancellation of the 11:10 Cornish Wizardier service to Falmouth. Knight Busses are being arranged for your transfer to Paddington. Will passengers please remain on platform 9 1/2 and await further announcements”.

The _Wizardier_ , running every day of the week between London and Falmouth, was the main daily service for the wizarding community based in the West Country. With many of the influential pure-blood families living in the west it was a service equipped with the latest equipment available to Hogwarts Rail. That didn’t mean it was as up to date as the latest trains on muggle-rail, the discovery back in the 1980s that power-connected micro-chips either explode, turn to sand (in some circumstances even both!) when in close proximity to magic had seen to that. There was also a converse too, muggle-rail trains did not have anything like so many advantageous extras available such as the advanced stowage and expansion charms on the luggage racks enabling, as just one example, all the school trunks to be carried as walk-on luggage! From King’s Cross, Hogwarts Rail managed to adequately serve the nation’s wizarding community, albeit with a service frequency far less than muggles need; their three platforms being adequate against the muggles twelve, and that for servicing just part of eastern Britain!

It is true that wizards have many ways of travelling magically, but often these can be nauseous or uncomfortable; five hours travelling exposed and buffeted on a broomstick, even with the use of warming charms, is not to be recommended when alternatives are available. Additionally, for obvious reasons these magical alternatives to rail are unavailable to squibs, any non-magical partners and colleagues of wizards and several of the other species living within the wider magical community. If truth be told, many wizards also find there is pleasure to be had from the generally stress free rail journeys provided by Hogwarts Rail. A ride aboard a wizarding train, even for the daily commute, is light years away from the uncomfortable, overcrowded and unreliable offerings so often endured on the muggle network.

At Southall, meanwhile the necessary shunting moves were completed in time to get the set of _Wizardier_ coaches, now the replacement empty stock for the _Hogwarts Express_ , despatched towards King’s Cross on-time. The magical rail network around and under London defies muggle logic, although why would it appear to muggles to be any different than the trains they expect? What muggles only see as the twists and turns of the mail-rail and underground systems get the wizarding trains to both the goods interchange depot located beneath Diagon Alley and to the dedicated King’s Cross Hogwarts Rail platforms. Thus it was that on schedule, at 10:45 precisely, the  _Hogwarts Castle_ locomotive in its splendid coat of scarlet paint arrived on time together with its train and ran into platform 9 3/4. Barney had achieved objective one. In resolving the rolling stock crisis he had, however, overlooked objective two. The _Express_ , always ran with old-style compartment coaches, the only all compartment rake of coaches still maintained by Hogwarts Rail, and always allocated as the HE set, remained stranded in Southall.

There was nothing wrong with this set of coaches, the open carriages were younger, better lit, and more spacious than the old, but they weren’t compartmented and were painted in the lovely, and traditional, livery of chocolate and cream appropriate for the West Country. However, the trains for Scotland had originally been varnished teak, and more recently maroon. Although outside the parameters of this tale (and rather like the way in which most wizards fail to notice fluctuations in muggle clothing fashions) the hierarchy of Hogwarts Rail, unlike the staff at operational level, had failed to notice that the trains on the main network were now decked out in many, new and gaudy, liveries. It was lucky for them that the obscuration of wizarding trains to muggles, and also the failure of many of their fellow wizards to notice changes happening around them, had prevented an outcry.

For Hogwarts students the battle for the right compartment on the train was a legendary right of passage; relationships that lasted a lifetime were often forged on the train. Compartment stock had become traditional. The provision of compartmented coaches was even one of the sub-clauses within the school’s charter arrangement with Hogwarts Rail. The substitution of open coaches was, in due course, to generate claims and counter claims between the school, the two involved rail operators and the muggle based Network Rail that was to tie the accountants in knots for months to come! The compartmented coaching style had been in use since the very first departure, from the then new King’s Cross station back in 1852, mirroring the earlier use of a fleet of horse-drawn carriages. As a squib Barney was immune to many of the ways of the wizards, although an excellent manager and organiser, the significance of the need to facilitate this particular annual rite of student passage had passed him by.

Charms, spells, incantations and potions to work on the paintwork could, given time, have been used to make the necessary amendments to the train, internally and externally, yet, and despite the power of the assembled wizards, there was neither the time to do so, nor the opportunity. Luckily no one was stupid enough to try as, sadly for muggles, one downside of their modern electronic signalling systems, is the occasional unexpected outage when a burst of high-strength magic from a wizard on a passing Hogwarts Rail service blows out the essential circuitry. Although the damaging range of most magic is only a foot or two (ok about half a metre if you must use modern muggle dimensions) each carriage carries a prominent no-magic warning notice, although defacement and ignoring of the rule is commonplace, most of the time, the muggle systems do survive. On this occasion, as using that much magic collectively in the confined station area of Kings Cross would have also blown out every micro-chip for miles around, London escaped being brought to a standstill.


	5. The train reaches King’s Cross

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the announcement of the cancelled Cornish Wizardier service the empty stock for the Hogwarts Express arrives at King's Cross. Tensions mount in the Malfoy family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the light of reader feedback the first two chapters of the work as first published have been re-ordered to aid clarity. That text now forms Ch 1, 2 & 4\. Newly written scenes have been added as the inserted Chapter 3. 
> 
> That has led to this chapter being renumbered.

With the arrival of the train into King’s Cross the noise rose. As the small tank engine drew the coaches down along the platform with the _Hogwarts Castle_ already attached at the outer end the clamour from the pupils and parents increased in volume. It soon began to intermingle with the hissing of leaking steam, the clicking of hot locomotive parts cooling, and assorted hoots, wails and squawks from school pets. It was no longer just the delayed travellers for the West Country, the Malfoys amongst them, raising their voices, now many of the youngsters also joined in.  
“The school, train its here, but it's not the same train.”  
“Wtf?”  
Why’s it steam Daddy?”  
“Oi, Weasley, this one of your George’s pranks?”  
“Proper buffet car, cool”;  
similar snippets could be heard emanating from various louder, and shriller, voices.

Seeing the train, Draco Malfoy was saddened as so many memories of the old train flooded back. Mostly they were good, although he wished some hadn't resurfaced: the images of the shattered castle, memories of faces from his time at Hogwarts (friends and enemies alike) lost during, or orphaned by, the war. Like Tom Riddle, and ‘the boy who lived’ (Draco’s arch-enemy during his school days), Draco had found the Castle gave him the feeling of warmth and embracing companionship that he so rarely ever felt back home at Malfoy Manor during the holidays. His reasons for that feeling were not too dissimilar to those other boys; it wasn’t for nothing that his former headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, repeatedly quoted the old school motto, "Help is always given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it”. For his part, Draco had never understood that the asking was not always via an obvious request, the building was so riddled with absorbed leakage from centuries of magic it was sentient to the needs of its residents. The subconscious thoughts of pupils, especially emotionally needy first-years untrained in the art of occlumancy, were easily read and acted upon.

A blast of escaping steam from the _Hogwarts Castle’s_ lifting safety valves jolted Draco’s mind back to the here and now. His wife Astoria was ill again, resulting in his mother’s insistence on coming to see Scorpius off back to school, on the way up he’d even wondered if it was that she didn’t trust Draco to get Scorpius onto the right train. The truth is, that with the worry about his wife’s continuing ill health, she might even have been partially correct. However, that said, the boy in question was bolstered with all the confidence of the returning second-year, he was already far too busy rushing hither and thither intent on finding his own friends in the milling throng. He was too engrossed in that to really notice either his father or his grandmother, as for spotting the adults frosty body language, he had as much chance of reading that as he had of translating Mandarin Chinese into Sanskrit! Fussing, clinging, sorrowful parents was a first-year thing, a year away from home changed both the child and the parents; as a second year you said your goodbyes and at the same time, openly at least, intending that it would only be them that did the crying.

For her part Narcissa Malfoy was fully alert and standing close, but clearly distanced from, Draco. She had dressed for the day in well fitting black clothing, was maintaining that haughty and proud attitude that only the nobility seem able to generate. This, coupled with her ramrod straight bearing, meant that even those present who had no idea who she was saw that she was clearly not one to be messed with. Unfortunately Narcissa had quickly realised that her true reason for coming to King’s Cross, an attempt to ensure the youngster didn’t fraternise openly with non-pure bloods, or at least not in public before he boarded the school train, had been a miserable failure.

Post the war Draco may have chosen to play down his heritage, forget that he was a lineage heir in one of the Sacred twenty-eight families, but not her. Since the war her continuing failure to decry, neither what had gone before in name and deed by the Malfoys, or to formally acknowledge that her sister Bellatrix Lestrange had been guilty of the most heinous war-crimes, had been a constant undercurrent within the letters section of the _Daily Prophet_. Today, all around her were staring eyes, the strength of hatred forcing gritted teeth and artificial smiles to be etched into the faces of former enemies; row on row of rigid faces like so many carved pumpkins stretching along the platform.

The aura and ambience around her was so cold it was almost freezing despite the strong summer sun; the escaping steam and heat from the train was forming and twisting around her in misty whorls. In Narcissa’s mind the hordes could think what they liked, she may now be a Malfoy through marriage but she’d been born a Black; despite her husband still being incarcerated in Askaban, no Black was going to bow down to a proletariat rabble!

“Draco” she barked, shaking him out of his dream state, “Get Scorpius’ trunk on to the train then go and find out how we get home. I don’t care if the _Wizardier_ is cancelled, we are Malfoys, Malfoys go first class, Malfoys DO NOT use Knight Busses.”

Hearing her voice cut through the tumult several other parental groupings quickly pushed their children onto the train and edged further back. Those moves, unfortunately, gave Narcissa a clear line of sight along the platform to Hermione Weasley’s group. She glided down the platform towards them, “Weasley, or is it still Granger? You are the Minister, what is this train doing here? This is not the _Hogwarts Express_ , this was our train. Do something, and ……”  
Fortunately at that moment more station announcements drowned her out.  
“The train now standing at Platform 9 3/4 is the 11am _Hogwarts Express_ School Special to Hogsmeade, Hogsmeade only. Passengers waiting for the cancelled 11:10 _Cornish Wizardier_ service calling at Reading, Salisbury, Yeovil, Exeter, Chudley, Plymouth and Falmouth should board the busses outside the station leaving at 11:10……”  
Hermione did try to answer, but the continuing announcements over-powered her voice.  
“…. The next train at Platform 9 1/2 will be the 11:15 arrival from Wimborne and forming the 11:45 return service. Hogwarts Rail apologise for the cancellation of the Falmouth Service.”

After spotting Harry Potter and his brood arriving through the barrier, as usual almost too late for the train, Draco had managed to distance himself from his mother. He and Harry had been rivals at school, and enemies during the war, but the reality of combat had, surprisingly, ended the bitter feud between them. They were still not close friends, and Draco knew exactly what his mother thought of the Potters, but at this moment he didn’t care, his mother’s arrogance was grating. The war hadn’t shown her that blood-status proved nothing, and that love could triumph over hatred, but it had changed Draco as had his son forming a friendship bond with Albus Potter. As he moved over to shake hands with Harry and Ginny, Scorpius ran past, beating him to the group.

If looks could kill (and of course in the wizarding world some of the unspoken curses can do precisely that) the look Narcissa shot Draco and Scorpius as the two groups blended, would have ensured a complete filling of the front page of Sunday’s _Daily Prophet_  with coverage of the _King’s Cross Massacre!_ Although she knew the unforgivable curses Narcissa had never learnt unspoken spell-work and, fortuitously for those present today, her heritage as a Black had always allowed her to maintain just enough self-control and aristocratic reserve to be openly showing poise and bearing despite adversity and inwardly seething. It has to be said that in temptation her hand did get as far as gently grazing her wand, however, drawing and using it was definitely a step too far.

The train’s guard put her whistle to her lips and a first piercing blast broke up the remaining family groups. The last few trunks were hurriedly shrunk and jammed into the end vestibules of each carriage and, accompanied by the cacophony of slamming doors, any pupils and returning staff still left on the platform scrambled aboard the train. Once they were aboard the difference was immediately apparent; the open coaches coming as a culture shock. The Prefects thought it was progress, harder for hiding pranks from them and ensuring their patrolling would be easier. The teachers also realised, with horror, that it was about to be a far noisier and even more boisterous trip north than usual. The returning pupils managed to find any of their friends they’d missed on the platform and form their usual groups. The first years were not so sure, they’d expected change with their move up from juniors to not only ‘big-school’ but a large and wizarding big-school. For those amongst the first-years who had already researched where they were going, and how they were to get there, the change in the train’s rolling stock was upsetting their equilibrium even more than was usual.

Another long, piercing blast from the guards whistle was followed by one in acknowledgement from each of the two scarlet locomotives; a huge blast of steam shot down the track as the locomotives began to move, and as it had always done, with heads, arms and waving hankies stuck through open windows, the school train began to roll north. The steam from the small helper engine which had drawn the train in was adding to the ethereal atmosphere as it gave the train an initial shove before dropping back as _Hogwarts Castle_ accelerated the train away.

As it morphed forwards out onto the muggle railway system and the tunnelled exits beyond the platform ends, so the blanketing mist descended across the scene until finally even the red light on the rear of the last carriage disappeared into the white blanket. For a minute or so longer the sharp bark of the Castle class locomotive’s exhaust echoed back into just this one tiny part of London until that too faded to silence. On the muggle side of the station, if anyone had even seen it leave, it was just one more commuter service trundling off into London’s northern suburbs.

As the train entered the tunnels, on board the train, it was as if nothing had changed. Yells, laughter, the crack of exploding snap cards, another term, another train ride. Albeit that the relayed announcements were somewhat different to those you hear on any muggle rail journey:-  
“This is your guard speaking. Welcome aboard this special Hogwarts Rail service to Hogsmeade, Hogsmeade only. Please do not use magic on the train. The buffet car will open shortly and a trolley service for hot and cold drinks, light refreshments and confectionary will be passing through the train. Our estimated time of arrival at Hogsmeade is 18:00 on Sunday evening; please reset any calendars before leaving the train. Thank you for travelling Hogwarts Rail.”

Back on the platform Draco had stayed with the Potters after their respective children had got onto the train, continuing to exchange small talk as they headed for the exit gates. Meanwhile Narcissa, being Narcissa, was continuing to harangue Hermione, talking-over every word she tried to say in defence of the Falmouth train’s cancellation. She, Hermione, had eventually been briefed by her security team as to what had happened; for all her trying to get it through to Narcissa that the right decision had been made, a brick wall would have been more receptive. Finally Hermione decided she’d had enough of kow-towing to snobbery and pure-blood arrogance,  
“This is all very well and good you arguing with me Narcissa, but I can see Draco has just left with the Potters. I suggest if you want to catch the provided rail-replacement bus you follow them out of the station. Good bye.”

Together with Ron and her Ministerial security team she pointedly turned towards the exit. Conversation closed. Narcissa was not amused. However, having seen this put-down, in the main the small crowd that had gathered to watch the exchange, left the station in much higher spirits than they had expected to be in after seeing their children off on the train.


	6. A coffee shared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco's actions increase the rift with his mother. Luicius' imprisonment explained. Draco and Harry's relationship continues to soften. A seething Narcissa creates problems at Paddington. 
> 
> (This is all for now - there may be more to come during 2019)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the light of reader feedback the first two chapters of the work as first published have been re-ordered to aid clarity. That text now forms Ch 1, 2 & 4\. Newly written scenes have been added as the inserted Chapter 3. 
> 
> That has led to this chapter being renumbered.

Draco had not expected Harry and Gina to invite him to join them for a cup of muggle coffee in one of the station refreshment outlets. Why would he? As he accepted the invite, he felt liberated, he was now strong enough mentally, and apparently bold enough, to make decisions in defiance of his parents and challenge the expectations of his breeding and upbringing. His marriage to Astoria had been the catalyst, it was not what his parents had expected, or wanted, the ancient arrogance of the Malfoys being astounded that he would dare to chose a wife for himself, not tread the expected path. Proposing to marry a cursed mud-blood sympathiser was not welcomed; this was despite the fact that following the anticipated road to power by bobbing along on Voldemort’s coat tails had lost the family their social status (and a hefty slice of their gold reserve too), led to the death of Draco’s Aunt and to his father’s current, long-term, incarceration in Askaban.

Given Lucius’ earlier acquittal of any major war crimes this latter occurrence had been unexpected. Like all known Death Eaters he had served the mandatory six-month sentence handed down across the board. He’d been sly enough that for a couple of years after the war even the Ministry’s Auror teams had thought that was it. To their eyes, despite openly being a leading member of Voldamort’s inner council and one of the most slippery and sloping shouldered of all the multitude of Death Eaters, Lucius Malfoy had, cunning to the end, managed to hide his other illegal activities in support of the cause well enough to escape a major prison sentence.

Unfortunately for Lucius, like many a pure-blood supremacist before him, he had seriously underestimated, both the anti-crime security measures built into modern muggle banking systems, and the level of inter-play between the two worlds when it came to financial affairs. Voldemort, had always feared that the Gringot’s goblins would follow his money trail on behalf of those he'd stolen from. As a consequence he had invested heavily in the muggle financial market purchasing property, stocks, shares and bonds, often for a fraction of their true worth, through his usual forms of intimidation and deceit. The accounting necessary for these transactions had been undertaken by Lucuis, despite or because of his apparent distaste of anything muggle, and after the war he knew where those funds were still safely stashed. He had access to the necessary account numbers to access that stash; also like his former master foolishly considering that as it was in muggle banks it was completely out of sight of any Ministry or Gringotts eyes. Even then, had he been more careful, and drawn it out over time, perhaps in liaison with dark-web traders in the muggle world, he might have got away with it. If he had also consciously considered the sterling/galleon exchange rate he might not have tried to cash out £1,000,000 and deposit the lot, in one hit, into his Gringotts account. Goblin alarm bells did ring, and within days the tangled web of transactions was exposed, Lucius was soon behind bars charged with a multitude of enmeshed financial frauds. As with so many cultures, wizarding sentencing policy places a higher tariff on financial criminality than for offences involving violence against the person!

Draco no longer felt that pure-blood supremacy was either possible, or desirable. His steadily warming relationship with Harry Potter was a case in point; back at school the idea that he, Draco Malfoy, would be happily joining the ‘boy who lived’ and a blood traitor Weasley, for a cup of muggle coffee whilst at the same feeling inwardly pleased his mother had failed to get one over on Hermione Grainger would have seemed impossible. The generational jump that had enabled their sons to become friends, and would in the future let them openly become lovers, was slowly mellowing the parents too.

Meanwhile, as the train rolled on northward, any tensions the new first years were feeling towards the coming school term and the impending sorting ceremony were easing. The trolley witch had been selling treats as usual, strangers throughout the train were meeting and mingling to form new relationships just the same as always. No, it was back at King’s Cross where the tension had been building, especially for Narcissa, so blinded by her heritage as to dismiss anything muggle as an irrelevance. The consequence was that she had no comprehension of the idea of chain outlet coffee shops, thus failed to notice either, that her son was sitting in one of the window seats in Starbucks, or that he was sitting with Harry Potter. That undoubtedly saved her from an apoplectic fit, as it was she swallowed her pride and, after another final hesitation, deigned to board the last available Knight Bus in the full expectation of catching up with Draco at Paddington Station.

Ginny saw her do so –  
“Draco, isn’t that your mother?” she casually enquired, the words albeit spoken perhaps just a little later than they could have been, seeing as how she’d seen Narcissa crossing the concourse quite a long time before she’d actually plucked up enough courage to board the bus.  
“Yeh”, Draco replied, “I saw too, it will do her good to stew and rant for a bit longer.”  
After spotting Harry’s quizzically raised eyebrow he added, “Yeh, yeh, I know, forget how much of an idiot I used to be back at school. Since realising that muggle stuff can actually be useful I use their trains a fair bit, she doesn’t. The muggle station is much closer to the Manor than the Hogwarts Rail one, and more trains stop, so I know the next muggle train to our nearest station isn’t for hours yet. And Ginny, if you dare tell your father that I now know things about muggle stuff I will find out.”  
“How will you get to Paddington?” Harry asked.  
“Well, there are muggle taxis you know.” Draco replied, “My stupid, ‘no muggle cash will ever sully my handbag’ Mother may have had to swallow her dignity and slum it on the Knight Bus, but some of us Malfoys do have some pride left you know, despite Father’s stupidity. Never said this before but it serves her right for ignoring muggle customs for so long.”  
Harry and Ginny were silent for a minute to two, then Harry stretched his hand out towards Draco “Never thought I’d say this to you either, but now you’ve shed that purity crap you are not a bad bloke.”  
They finished their coffees in pleasant chit chat, before parting, maybe not yet as ‘friends for life buddies’ but certainly one step closer.

As for what had happened to Narcissa, at this point an unfortunate ticket clerk at Paddington was calling Security; she’d no idea what Narcissa had actually done but, immediately after a wooden stick had been poked through the glass at her, the ticket machine exploded and all the information screens died.

Draco arrived by taxi moments after the Ministry’s Auror team had also apparated in to reverse the secrecy breach from use of magic in a public place. For the second time in under an hour, Draco decided ignoring his mother’s behaviour was the wisest course of action.


End file.
